"It had been an arduous and wondrous trip into the Skeechen Swamp. I had previously met the Skeech, but not this particular tribe, with its rich culture and gaudy colors. The trip into the swamp had been incredibly fruitful, both Sharian and I met wondrous beings and delved deep into the Fungi Skeechen culture. It was not easy of course, the swamps are filled with dangerous creatures, both those whose entirely natural behavior is dangerous to us (that means, we can be their food), and those who consciously and willingly will prey on other sentients. The first you understand their ways to avoid. The second must be confronted. But alas... about the Skeech:
We discovered there are at least 6 color variations, though Sharian mentioned that he sees no reason for there not to be more. I noticed many combinations of frills and antlers, usually in contrasting tones to the skin, though there seems to be no hard rule here either. The many body adornments the Skeech have seem to be akin to human fingerprints, that is, unique to each individual. They have a glowing forehead "glow-gem" that can change color and emit light. This seems to be some kind of species-only communication means, though the Skeech never spoke clearly of it.
Skeechen culture is horizontal. They have no clear leader or ruling class, and have a somewhat chaotic (to non skeechen eyes anyway) structure based on skills and current social needs. If the need arises for a leader (in war, migrations, alliances and other mayor events that involve the whole tribe), a council of elders is established and they choose a temporal leader from anywhere on the tribe depending on the skills required by the situation.
The Skeech are goblinoid physical elemental fae, (that is, they reside more on this side of the veil than on the other), they are magical beings with a strong connection to the living side of the Earth element; living soil you could say. As all fae their motives and behavior can be seen as fickle and even dangerous by non-fae sentients...."
-The Fungi Skeech
The Apprentice's Journal
Greetings everyone! Of course, the first post had to be about the recently released Skeech. I was a D&D master for many years, and have always loved telling stories, in fact, for every project or painting I make, there is a story behind. I do them for me, to give solidity and body to the project while I am working on it, but seldom tell them. So, if you like them, besides the small snippets I always make as an introduction for each, I will expand on them here. It’s a fun way of introducing new builds. If you like to know about any aspect of the tale behind anything let me know. If you want the hard facts you can always go to the marketplace description, right?
This is my first blog (oh the shame, I know) so, please, if you have any suggestions to make feel free to do so.
I hope you enjoy these posts, and the story we will all write.
The contrasting color patterns on the Skeech are based somewhat on the color designs you see on coral reef fish. Did you know that complementary colors, on low light conditions and seen from afar, tend to optically blend with each other into a grayish muck? Real Life fish use a very interesting inter-species color communication code; when seen close their garish colors contrast and send "tight beam" communications so to speak. When seen from afar, especially on the marine environment that quickly absorbs light with distance, this same clashing color pattern seems as blotted pointillist camouflage. Fish usually do not possess a sight with an ample depth-field perception, usually their sight focuses color and forms sharply in a smaller sphere and closer range than ours, colors beyond this sphere tend to blend, further increasing this "tight-beam"/camouflage communication tactic. To humans, with their good enough, land based color and depth-field perception this color code is seen as a screaming chorus of gaudy color. Our brain eyes are not "rigged" for this kind of "talk". Curiously enough, although unintentional, this effect somewhat translated into SL with the Fungi Skeech; its very hard to tell their color and their shape even blurs on low light conditions because of the color arrangement, and the frills and antler breaking the creatures profile.
ResponderEliminarCool huh?